1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a power outputting apparatus and a vehicle equipped with the power outputting apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical power outputting apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 6-17727. This type of power outputting apparatus is mounted in a vehicle and is provided with a motor that directly drives a drive shaft coupled to driven wheels of the vehicle via a differential gear, and an internal combustion engine connected to the drive shaft via a planetary gear. This power outputting apparatus starts the internal combustion engine by cranking it with torque output from the motor while the motor is driving the drive shaft. Then, when the internal combustion engine is being started while the drive shaft is being driven by the motor with the internal combustion engine stopped, the clutch is engaged and the internal combustion engine is cranked by the torque output from the motor. At this time, a torque command value for the motor is set increased by a predetermined value so that the torque output to the drive shaft does not decrease due to the cranking.
With this power outputting apparatus, however, an abnormal noise may be generated when the internal combustion engine is started while the vehicle is stopped. When the gear is directly coupled to the output shaft of the internal combustion engine, contact noise from the gears may be generated by torque pulses and the like during startup of the internal combustion engine.
Moreover, with a power outputting apparatus which starts the internal combustion engine using a reaction force of the drive shaft, there may be contact noise from gears of a lock mechanism that locks the drive shaft either directly or indirectly by gear engagement when that lock mechanism is operated and the internal combustion engine is started.